Bring the Bays Back to Life One Oyster Garden at a Time

Black Forest Wildlife CoExist Foundation demonstrates how people and nature can live together. Through simple, practical stewardship, we show how even everyday homes and neighborhoods can support and coexist with the natural environment.

Our work is based at Black Forest Wildlife Preserve, a stewarded property in the West Fenwick area of Sussex County, Delaware.

Along Delaware’s Inland Bays, something simple and powerful is happening. People are growing oysters, not for harvest or profit, but to help restore balance in the water around them.

Oysters are natural water filters. A single oyster can filter gallons of water each day, removing excess nutrients and sediment that cloud the bays and make it harder for life to thrive. Over time, oyster gardens improve water clarity, support seagrass, and create habitat for fish, crabs, and other marine species. This is what coexistence actually looks like in practice, and it is something many of you can be part of.

What Is Oyster Gardening?

Through the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays, residents with access to bay waters can host a small oyster garden, usually a floating cage or structure tied to a dock or boat slip. These oysters are not for eating. They are there to do what oysters naturally do, which is filter water and support the ecosystem around them.

The program has shifted in an important way over time. These oysters are meant to live out their full lifespan right where you place them, continuing to filter the water, build habitat, and even reproduce. As the program explains, these oyster gardens have the potential to play an important role in improving the health of the Bay.

Leading by Doing

At Black Forest Wildlife Coexist Foundation, we believe this kind of work matters most when you are actually doing it. We will be establishing our own oyster garden in partnership with the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays in Fenwick Island, on Oyster Bay Drive, which feels almost too fitting.

It is a reminder that restoration does not require perfect conditions or large scale efforts. It starts where you are, with what you have, and with a willingness to participate.

Who Can Participate?

If you have access to bay water, whether through a private dock, a community dock, or even a boat slip, you are already in a position to consider this. The program does require that you are a year round Delaware resident and that you are willing to check on your oyster cage every couple of weeks and keep it clean.

It is a commitment, but it is not overwhelming. More importantly, it is real. This is not passive support. This is hands in the water stewardship.

What Does It Require?

The structure is simple and reasonable. The oysters stay in the water most of the time, and every couple of weeks you bring the cage up, check for buildup, and clean it if needed so the oysters can continue to function properly. There are also two simple photo check ins each year so the program can track how things are going.

There is a modest annual fee, currently fifty dollars, that supports the program. And one important point, these oysters are not to be harvested or eaten. They exist solely to restore and support the bay.

Why This Matters

We talk about conservation all the time, but often in a very abstract way through policy, funding, and regulation. This is different because it is local, tangible, and immediate.

An oyster garden at your dock is not symbolic. It is actively improving the water right there. It is creating habitat and contributing to a system that can begin to restore itself over time. Just as important, it reconnects people to the place they live, which is really at the core of what we believe at Black Forest Wildlife Coexist Foundation. Restoration does not come from distance. It comes from relationship.

How to Get Started

If you want to learn more or apply, you can go directly through the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays Oyster Gardening Program. If you have access to the bays, this is one of the most direct ways to give back. Email Brian Ochs bochs@inlandbays.org for more information.

Support the Work In the Water and On the Land

At Black Forest Wildlife Coexist Foundation, we see this as part of a bigger picture. Oyster gardening is one piece of a broader effort to reconnect people to the systems that sustain life around them, whether that is forest, field, or bay.

If you are able to participate, step in. If you are not in a position to host an oyster garden, you can still be part of this work. Your support helps us expand education, stewardship programs, and hands on conservation efforts right here in our local ecosystems. Every contribution helps strengthen that connection between people and place.

We spend a lot of time asking how to live alongside nature without degrading it. Sometimes the answer is not complicated. You grow oysters, you restore habitat, and you support the work that makes both possible.

How to Get Involved

At Black Forest Wildlife Coexist Foundation, our focus is simple. Human use of land and the needs of the natural environment do not have to compete. They can work together.

Every project we take on, from forest restoration to oyster gardening, is built on that idea. We do the work, we learn from it, and we share it so others can do the same.

If you would like to support this work, we welcome your involvement. Whether that means participating directly, sharing these efforts with others, or making a donation, each one helps us continue building practical, local models of coexistence.

To learn more or get involved, visit Black Forest Wildlife Preserve and connect with us through the contact link at the bottom of our home page to contact us: Black Forest Wildlife Preserve